It’s where you happen to touch that matters. Less of big deal touching components’ ground pins or handling the GPU by its heatsink/shroud, but if you discharge into one of the PCIe connector’s main data lines your GPU is not going to be too happy about it. Same is true of many of the pads underneath the CPU but, again, it really depends what you happen to be touching when you zap it.
I don’t think that was supposed to be your takeaway from that video
There’s playing it a little loose with ESD (not using a mat / resistive grounding strap), then there’s completely throwing caution to the wind (working on a carpet without any sort of ground nearby)
Glad you weren’t wearing your wooliest socks though
As a kid, I remember seeing previews of this on early OXM demo discs and in the magazine itself. I never came across the game in the used games bin, but always had an interest in playing it.
A year or so ago, looked into it as a potentially fun Steam Deck game but was steered away by disappointing Xbox reviews.
Seeing this, I now have the game wishlisted and am looking forward to picking it up on sale!
This review is what did it for me. Love the way you tied it in with your mug :)
I’ve played every Battlefield since 1942. The series does a great job creating large-scale warfare while keeping it action-packed, avoiding the longer lulls found in other milsim games. There’s a degree of intensity to the combat that I don’t really feel in most other FPS titles.
They’re regularly on sale on Steam for $1.99.
Battlefield 4 is coming up on 12 years old and still has a fair amount of active servers. Might just be me getting old but I find the gameplay really holds up. Compared to Battlefield 3, the whole battle pass / premium currency aspect was really souring at the time, but it’s not all that bad now.
For me, each release since then has been increasingly disappointing, though I still played them and had my fun. I was hyped for WWI combat in BF1, but they had to go and put fully automatic weapons with reflex sights in every soldier’s hands. Thought maybe we’d wind up with bolt action only hardcore servers, but that didn’t really pan out. Battlefield V brought things back to WW2 again, but it felt ruined yet again with an overabundance of attachments and letting everyone spawn with any other faction’s weapons. Completely immersion breaking.
The best modern Battlefield game was BattleBit Remastered, which wasn’t even developed by EA/Dice and had very simple Roblox graphics - seems like things aren’t going so good anymore.
If you like Star Wars, the Battlefront games are pretty amusing.
A lot of the Battlefield games have a single player campaign that ranges from generic FPS to actually having some pretty cool mechanics sprinkled in.
I’m surprised modders are still releasing their work in a manner where they can be personally identified and forced to comply with a DMCA takedown.
If modding is going to be treated like piracy, move it into pirate networks. Hell, I’d even love to see mods requiring a cracked copy of the game just to send a message.
Matrix, Revolt
I often revisit Soldat
The Darkness, Skate 3, Amped 3, Perfect Dark Zero + the remaster of the original, Crackdown, Fable II, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (1+2), Condemned 2…
Just a handful of games that I’d love to be able to revisit on Steam Deck.
Predecessor managed to capture the feel of Halo/Destiny gunplay with Portal mixed in
That’s what Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Google Workspace Starter, and Proton Mail Essentials are all priced at. Seems like the market price to me
Absolutely love Shift 2. I feel like it really captured the intensity of Battlefield 3, but transposed to the Racing genre.
Recently revisited it on the Steam Deck and was worried that it wasn’t going to be as good as I remembered, and I’m pleased to say that it has remained every bit as amazing as it was.
Also makes me wonder what the hell simcade games have been doing the last 14 years. Nothing else really matches the sensation of speed and intensity that Shift 2 has. It’s also weird to me that the reactive helmet cam is not a staple in every single racing game.
For starters, there’s more to gpu performance than memory speed and quantity.
believe that everybody should skip them
This strikes me as a bit weird. Everyone uses graphics cards for different things, everyone has different priorities, and most people who have a PC have different hardware.
I’ve got clients who edit video for work, and others who do it as a hobby. In the professional sphere, render times can have a pretty direct relationship with cashflow, so having the ‘best’ can mean the hardware pays for itself several times over.
I’ve got clients who only play one game and find it runs great on their current setup, others who are always playing the latest games and want them to perform well, and still others who play a game professionally/competitively and need every frame they can get. Some are happy at 1080p, others prefer 4k, and some may want to drive a high-end VR headset.
For some people, taking advantage of a new GPU might also require a new PSU of even a total platform upgrade.
To one person, a few hundred dollars is disposable income whereas to another it might represent their ability to eat that month.
These are all variables that will influence what is appropriate for one person or another.
If someone were to have ~$600 to spend, be in need of an upgrade to meet the requirements of an upcoming game they want to play at launch, and have a platform that will support it, I’m likely to recommend an RTX5070 to them.
If someone were to be happy enough with their current performance, I’m likely to recommend they wait and see what AMD puts out - or potentially even longer.
Personally, I’ve always waited until a game I’m excited for performs poorly before upgrading.
This article is just plain bad. The author’s own conclusion contradicts the headline.
The Steam Deck has finally been surpassed
I don’t think I would personally buy an Asus ROG Ally X over a Steam Deck, at least not now.
In the end, I don’t think I would ever consider a handheld gaming PC without trackpads.
That’s because this situation is only applicable to offline environments where updates would otherwise be deployed manually.
This issue does not affect systems that receive updates directly through Windows Update or the Microsoft Update Catalog.
So, the overwhelming majority of systems and especially all of those used by average consumers.
Go back and play Cyberpunk!
My experience with that glow-up is exactly why I’m going to be waiting to go deep on a Stalker 2 playthrough.
The rough state of Stalker 2 reminded me a lot of Cyberpunk’s launch, so I’ve gone back to the playthrough that I started back when 2.0 came out. Still haven’t experienced Phantom Liberty or gotten to Act 2, be replaying everything that was janky at launch and getting to re-experience it as it should have been has been wonderful :)
That, and there are still many parts of the US that are underserved in internet access. I have a friend who lives ~15 minutes outside of a major city and, until recently, the whole family shared a flaky ~2Mbps connection. They begrudgingly adopted Starlink because that was the only decent option.
From the article, the large size is specific to the Xbox version:
The large download size might be due to how Xbox releases its updates. Xbox updates are often bigger compared to those on PC and PlayStation 4/5.
The touchpads, virtual menus, layers / action sets, and overall control customizability really make the Steam Deck shine. PC Games with complicated keyboard-centric control schemes can be adapted to the Steam Deck so easily.
A handheld without that is going to be a hard sell for me no matter how well it performs. As a secondary device to a Gaming PC with a strong internet connection, cloud gaming makes my Deck handle whatever I can throw at it.
Bit surprised to hear that, they were able to repair a customized / engraved Wave that I’ve had for 14 years.
It saw heavy (ab)use, locking mechanism for the knife blade got stuck/damaged after I used a baton to split wood.
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions https://bdsmovement.net/